# What are backups?

Backups are copies of the database and files you can restore.

> Source: https://www.mainpath.ai/en/wiki/backups/

## What it is

A backup is a copy you return to when a database is empty, a deploy went wrong, or someone deleted the wrong rows. A copy on the same disk does not help when the disk is gone. The point is a second place and a state you can name: last night, before the deploy, before the migration.

The difference between a copy and a backup is whether you can open that state somewhere else, at a moment you can name.

## What it is made of

Schedule and retention belong to it. A full copy every night, or more often only the changes. How many days stay. Whether you also have a copy outside the data center. A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a backup. A check that the copy opens and the app starts from it belongs to it.

## What goes wrong

Database and files are two backups. One without the other produces a state that does not fit together: new files and old rows, or the other way around. The time of both copies should be close.

## How it shows up on MainPath

On MainPath backups are part of operations. The steps are under [Backups]({{< relref "/docs/backups" >}}). You restore a state without maintaining scripts on every server that nobody has run for months.